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Joshua Arands
Joshua Arands (19 BBY — ) was born on the planet Tralus in the Corellian System about the same time Palpatine declared himself Emperor. Tralus is one of two planets that revolve around Centerpoint Station, which in turn orbits the star Corell. The two worlds, Tralus and Talus, are referred to as the Double Worlds, and are ruled by the elected Federation of Double Worlds, or Fed-Dub. While neither planet is as well known as Corellia, they are important providers of agricultural and mineral products in the system. Because of his system of origin and his similar accent, he is often mistaken to be Corellian - a misconception he has learned to overlook. Arands started flying as a pilot for Fed-Dub's security force at the young age of 16 and was seen by his superiors as a cocky, risk-taking pilot who frequently pushed his Z-95 Headhunter to its limits. A year after joining Fed-Dub, he was recruited away from Fed-Dub by a kid nearly his age who was on his way to join the Rebellion. That kid, Salonika Batrad, would become a lifelong friend. It didn't take long for Arands to make it past the crude "training" the rebellion provided. He was assigned to a fighter squadron within a week of arrival, the Galliant Defense Squadron. He was re-assigned at the age of 18 to Green Squadron at the Yavin IV headquarter base, but due to the lack of fighters would not fly against the Death Star when it made its attack on the moon base. Afterwards, he was assigned as a test pilot for the new A-wing interceptor fighter, interning under the direction of Commander Sescikchat. Here he found his true calling. Arands took part in over 46 battles in his time with the Rebellion, but the escape from Hoth would be his last. His fighter was heavily damaged and it blind-jumped into an independent stretch of rimward space where he was rescued by a trader convoy. The Captain of the flagship, a Marauder-class Corvette, let Arands work off the repairs of his A-wing as a crewmember of the group. When the Captain was killed in a bar, the crew reformed as mercenaries and dubbed themselves The Shadow Dragons. He would once again run into Salonika Batrad and return the favor by recruiting his friend into the mercenary group as a pilot. The Shadow Dragons offered their protective services to independent merchants and even some Rebel supply caravans right up until the Battle of Endor. Upon leaving the Shadow Dragons, Arands found himself in the Caspian system. The system had been recently freed of Imperial government and a small flotilla of Rebel ships had decided to make this system their home as well. Capital ships and fighters from the flotilla would form the core of the new system fighting forces. Arands joined up with the Caspian military after meeting up with another old Rebellion comrade, Doron Rtufo. He and Doron were instrumental in re-structuring the new fighter force, and both were test pilots for CDMC's new fighter prototypes; the Z-100 Centurion and the Z-105 Harpoon. Since Caspia maintained its A-wings as interceptors, Arands took command of the [[CNIS-29 Banshees|29th Banshees squadron]] and continued to fly his beloved A-wing. During his few years in Caspia, Arands formed new friendships, re-established old ones and learned that there was more to life than flying an A-wing in battle when he met his future wife, Shannon Dellious. Despite these lessons, he was slow to forget old ones and when the Empire arrived in-system in 8 ABY, he was the first to impulsively sortie against them. Unbeknownst to all Caspia, the Empire was about to initiate the Caspian Annexation Campaign, but gave the ruse that they had arrived for a diplomatic summit. Arands didn't believe a word of it, and was speeding out to lay into the Imperial force while the opportunity was there. Because of the "peace-nik" state of government, he was summarily ordered out of the zone, removed from the order of battle, and detained to face reprimand and probable court martial. Due to the current circumstances, he was ordered confined to quarters. Rather than being court-martialed, Arands set to loading his personal effects into his Kale-1 freighter and dispatched it, with Shannon at the helm, along with several of her key employees. They fled into New Republic space, barely an hour before hostilities erupted. Arands formally resigned his commission with Caspia via holo-recording, departing Caspia after retrieving his A-wing from a sympathetic flight operations handler. No more than five minutes later, the opening salvos would be fired, starting a three-month long war. He and Shannon moved to Corellia, where Arands sought out an recently acquired friend, Tarroc D'agor - the commanding officer of Starfighter Operations in the region. The NR accepted Arands back by giving him command of a newly formed A-wing squadron on a New Republic flagship, the Deliverance. In the first year of his service to the New Republic, Arands took part in over 30 missions against the Empire and earned his promotion to Commander. He and Shannon married and established a home on Coruscant. One year after that, after leading dozens of campaigns against the Imperial war machine, Arands was promoted to General and was given command of Task Force Alpha's wing of fighter squadrons. He successfully led Archer Squadron in dozens of offensives and counter-offensives against the enemies of the New Republic, including the defense of Corellia, the destruction of the third Death Star, and the liberation of Mon Calamari. Shortly after the liberation of Mon Calamari, Arands retired from the New Republic and founded New Horizon Enterprises with the help of his wife, the CEO of the Corellian Engineering Corporation. Arands, Joshua Arands, Joshua Arands, Joshua